Red Rogue
by fanficfan444
Summary: AU While Harry, Ron and Hermione are away in DH, Ginny decides that she's not going to sit by and do nothing anymore. so she hatches a plan. runs parallel with events of the last book. i own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

**Just trialling this story here to see if it has any interest. Got another (cross-over) story that also focuses on Ginny that you guys should go read and let me know if it's any good. Well here goes. CONTAINS MENTIONS OF SUICIDE.**

"Did they honestly expect me to just sit around my house while they go off and complete this secret task?" Ginny ranted to herself. Harry, Ron and Hermione had left the other day, mid wedding, and all their clothes and belongings were gone too. Ginny completely understood their need to go and she understood why she and Harry broke up, it just wasn't safe for her or her family. But them leaving was definitely the straw that broke the camel's, Ginny was absolutely sick of her whole family treating her like she was some little girl that needed protecting.

She most certainly did not. If anybody actually paid her any notice, they would see that she has the highest overall grades of the whole family, with Percy as her only competition. She knew spells people in her year didn't even know existed and all her success was ignored because they all saw her as the baby. Yes Ginny was no Hermione, but instead of focusing on things like history of magic, she put her attention towards the 'useful' topics and her spells packed a hell of a punch more than Hermione's. She studied through summers and holidays and if the trace wasn't on her she would have been out fighting from the beginning.

But the trace wasn't going to be on her much longer. No it wasn't Ginny's birthday, she was planning something, something illegal and dangerous. But what's life without danger? She just had to wait until tonight to complete it and then she could actually be of some use in this war.

She'd done all the preparation, she'd packed all the necessary items, first aid kit, clothes and what little money she had. Now Ginny was just waiting on one more thing. Now that the wards were broken by death eaters at the wedding Ginny could get out without tripping the alarm. Or more importantly get someone in. Her father had set up basic anti-apparition wards around the burrow, nothing about broom sticks so when Ginny heard a soft knock at her window she knew the plan was officially in action.

Getting up she crossed the room and opened the window stumbling back as a mess of limbs tumbled onto her floor. "Shhhhh!" Ginny hissed, "Jesus Dean, you're about as graceful as a bloody boggart!" she whispered shutting her window softly.

"Sorry, nearly dropped my broom trying to carry yours." Dean held up both brooms as indication of this. Ginny just rolled her eyes and dragged a bunch of pillows out from under her bed and positioned them on the floor in a row.

Stepping back she considered them and then met Dean's gaze, "Have you learnt the spell?" He nodded his confirmation, "Did you practice?" she asked.

"Yes but I really don't like this Ginny. If this goes wrong….." he trailed off.

"I know what could happen!" she whisper shouted and then quickly composed herself. "Listen, I'm really trying to keep them safe, and I get that I look all selfish doing this, but I have to help. My family are powerful, and right now the whole lot is under one roof, they can take care of themselves. Plus they have a plan for if death eaters come…. The point is that they'll be fine, but so many people won't be and if I can even help one, then I have to, right?" with her rant over she locked her eyes on Dean daring him to disagree. Eventually he sighed, conceding defeat.

"Ready?" Ginny asked. Dean steeled himself and pointed his wand at the pile of pillows. Ginny used a knife to cut an inch of hair from a random section on her head, she placed this on the first cushion. Then she put the knife to her hand and sprinkled the blood that followed over the whole pile.

Using silent magic because of the amount of noise they'd already made, Dean quietly turned the mess on the floor into a completely different mess altogether. Where there used to be pillows, there was now a lifeless body of a red headed girl identical to that of Ginevra Weasley. "This is going to really hurt them," Dean whispered, referring to the rest of the Weasleys.

"This is going to save them." Ginny said firmly. Then she quickly bandaged her hand, grabbed her suitcase and asked Dean to shrink it so that she could fit it into her pocket. Then she picked up her wand and a back pack and crept into the hallway and began to climb the stairs. Already knowing the plan, Dean levitated the body and followed her silently. They went up to the top floor, down the corridor, carefully creeping past Mr& Mrs Weasley's room and coming to a halt in front of a door that read 'CHarLiE'ss RoOOm' in faded crayon letters.

Outside the door Ginny turned back to Dean, "Remember I have to do it so that the ministry gets the alert from my underage magic and it looks realistic. Wait here until I come get you and cast muffliato on my parent's door." Then as Dean turned to carry out the last instruction, she slowly pushed the door open.

It was as she was trying to close the door that she heard a very tired and groggy voice say, "Ginny?" still facing the door, Ginny took a deep breath and braced herself for what was about to happen. Then she turned around and cast a silent body binding curse at her eldest brother. The shock on his face would now be frozen there until the spell wore off, by which point she would be long gone. She walked back to the door and beckoned Dean in, casting a silencing charm once he was inside.

"Right I doubt anyone is at the ministry at this time but who knows nowadays, so we better make this quick." She said once they couldn't be overheard. Then she turned around and walked over to her brother again, hearing Dean follow, with her dead body-double in tow. There was obvious panic in her brother's eyes and she felt truly remorseful for what she was about to do.

"Charlie, I don't have much time okay? So I need you to listen really carefully now." She took his wide gaze locked on her face as acknowledgment and continued. "I'm going to help the war effort, and I am so very sorry for dragging you into this too, but I need your help. That body behind me," she pointed to it, "is a decoy and will run out in roughly 24 hours, maybe a bit longer. Bury it before then, or the whole family will be neck deep in shit." Ginny laughed without humour and then turned around and signalled at Dean, to which he promptly chucked the body out of the highest window of the burrow leaving the windows open for effect.

"You can't tell Mum or Dad until after okay?" she was beginning to cry, and her brother looked absolutely frantic, his muscles completely tense and eyes bulging. "When the death eaters come looking tomorrow, and they will, it has to be realistic. Don't let Mum do anything stupid before you've told her." By now she was having to wipe tears off Charlie's face because she was crying so much. "If the people question you, you say that I came in distraught, tha-that I was u-upset about Harry leaving and that I couldn't cope anymore." Then Ginny pulled an envelope out of her back pack and placed it in her brother's hands. She had written a note to convince everyone that she had really gone through with it. "I love you all so much. Nothing in this letter is true, you all need to keep fighting okay?" Then she kissed her brother on the cheek and wiped one stray tear which was actually his for a change.

Dean placed his hand on her shoulder, gently saying, "We really need to go, it's nearly 2 in the morning." Ginny nodded solemnly and stood, holding her hand out for a broom which was promptly given to her. Trying not to look back at Charlie, but feeling his gaze on her, Ginny promptly climbed onto the window ledge and softly let herself fly towards the fake corpse on the ground. Waiting as her companion caught up with her, Ginny thought about how weird it was looking at her own body, however unreal it actually was.

Once she felt Dean's presence at her shoulder, she bent next to herself, and placed her wand into its grasp. The finishing touch.

"How are you going to cope without a wand?" Dean asked staring down at her.

"Oh I plan on getting one very soon." Ginny said with certainty.

"And you're sure that you don't want me to come with you?" he asked, his voice sounding uncertain.

"Dean," Ginny turned to face him, "I am so grateful for what you've already done, but I couldn't possibly ask you to come any further. The things I have to do tonight could get me sent to Azkaban and I'm a pureblood. The things I plan to do after tonight… let's just say they won't care who we are, they'll shoot to kill."

"But… if it's so dangerous then why do it." Dean asked.

"Because everyone else who possibly could has a family to worry about, but after tonight, I will literally be outside of the system. What I do won't affect my family until I get killed and I plan on taking as many as I can with me." She replied darkly.

"I understand." Dean said quietly. When Ginny looked at him sceptically he went on, "Oh I think you're completely nuts, but I get why you're doing it. If you can do this, you'll help so many people. But that's a pretty big 'if'." Then he kissed her cheek quickly and disappeared into the night.

Ginny felt bad for all she had done tonight, including dragging her ex into the situation but what she was about to do should set it all right….


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay so here goes the second chapter. Please review guys so that I know what I'm doing wrong/right and I can better the story. Thanks.**

The wind whipped across Ginny's face as she glided slowly into an alley in the heart of London. She had to be discrete, it may be almost 3 o'clock in the morning but people were still around. Leaving her broom propped against a wall in the alleyway she began to make her way along the narrow space. Ginny was dressed in all black muggle sweatpants and hoodie, the effect of which both making her fit in as she made her way down several streets but it also made people almost not notice her in the darkness. The ones who did notice her seemed to think she was some kind of hooligan and avoided her.

Nearing her destination Ginny pulled out a large plastic bag from her backpack and stuck her head around the next corner. She could see the telephone box that Harry led them to in her fourth year but let's just say that they'd tightened security since Voldemort had taken over. Two figures stood outside the phone box, bored expressions on their face. They were trying to appear casual in case any muggles were to pass by but just ended up looking even sketchier. Ginny could tell that these were no death eaters, and obviously not ministry officials. If she had to guess, Ginny would probably say that these were death-eater-wannabees. This job had probably been pawned off on them when others thought they were too good for it. Oh well, this would only make her job easier.

Out of her back pack she now pull a very crudely made and fragile cloak. It had loose threads all over it and was obviously not going to last much longer. Ginny did not need it to last more than two hours tops. It was made of about 20 of Fred and George's invisible hats all sewn together. For all intents and purposes, she now owned a very rubbish cloak of invisibility. She put it on and crept down the street.

When next to the men and the phone box, Ginny opened her plastic carrier bag which was full to the brim with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' products. That's right people, she was planning on getting into the ministry with a homemade invisibility cloak and a bag of pranks. Out of the bag she pulled a hand-full of small capsules that were from the muggle tricks section. They read "Fart Bombs" and Ginny had already used one a few weeks ago… let's just say she nearly vomited.

Careful not to make any noise at all, she crept up to the men until she could literally feel their body heat and then placed all of the little pellets on the ground next to them and taking a deep breath, she broke them all and then hurriedly back away.

The effect was almost instantaneous from the men "Fwooaah! Have you shit yourself?" one said fanning the air around him, trying to clear the smell away.

The other man was too busy gagging at first to reply, "M-ME?! This wasn't me!" by now they were both plugging their noses and moving away.

"It obviously was, and you've been eating something spicy by the smell of that one." The first figure said trying to diffuse the tension.

"I'm gonna be sick." The other replied, "Our shift is nearly over, let's just go. You clearly need to go to the bloody toilet anyway."

And with that they both began walking off, both denying their guilt with statements like "Whoever smelt it, dealt it." And "you denied it, so you supplied it."

Rolling her eyes Ginny quickly got into the telephone box and followed the instructions, conscious of the fact that the people on the next shift could be here any second. When the box started to descend she both breathed a sigh of relief at having gotten this far and gripped her cloak tighter at the thought that what lay beyond was unknown.

* * *

The phone box clattered, hazardously to the floor making a racket of noise in the open atrium. Ginny made quick work of getting out and starting towards where she knew the elevators were but when she heard voices from behind her she quickly ducked into one of the empty fireplaces used for flooing. She wasn't taking any chances tonight, cloak or not.

"What do you think it's doing down here?" an obviously female voice asked. They must have seen the phone box before it had chance to go back.

"It will just be one of those idiots on guard up there playing a joke or something." A deeper voice replied, exasperation clear in their tone.

"I don't know…. Maybe we should go tell someone just in case…" the girl said.

"Come on, if someone had come through, they'd have had to get past those two upstairs. They may be dumb as doorknobs but I doubt even they'd be stupid enough to not notice someone walking right past them." The male replied obviously bored now. With that the two walked off. Ginny waited until she could no longer here their footsteps and then began towards the elevators again.

Once inside one, she promptly began the descent down to the department of mysteries, all the way wishing that the elevator could be any quieter. As Ginny crept along the hall of the department, she wondered why there was such little security on the most important floor, it was only when she was a few metres away from the door that she needed to go through that she realised why this was. No one wanted to share the space with a dementor. Understandable really… it had been only a few days since the ministry fell, and already Voldemort had managed to get a dementor into the Ministry of Magic. Imagine what he would do in a few weeks, or months….

It was at almost the exact same moment that she noticed it that the creature noticed her. Or rather, since it couldn't actually see her, it noticed her soul, and boy did it look hungry. Ginny took one step back, the dementor lunged forward and…. The door it was guarding flew open.

Both Ginny and the monster turned to look at the intruders just in time to see Lucius Malfoy throw up his patronus. A hyena shot out from the end of his wand and charged towards the dementor, which quickly threw Ginny what she could only describe as a look of longing, for what could have been its dinner, and then took off away from the patronus.

Lucius did not even break stride as this happened, just kept walking, not looking back to see if his companions were following. As they passed by Ginny hugged the wall. One of them even stumbled a little on a particularly long part of the invisibility cloak which was sticking out, but did not even stop to question it as they scurried after their leader.

Ginny sighed taking a moment to collect herself after that close call. Then she steadied her mind and went through the door.

* * *

7 doors, 4 times nearly being caught and 23 minutes later, Ginny was in the room. THE room, at least she thought this was it. The one where they create the trace. Admittedly it was a bit of a let-down, a giant room holding thousands of clocks which slightly resembled the one her mother kept in the kitchen. Except these literally only had initials on the hands from what she could tell and only had two settings: 12 years old and 17 years old on opposite sides of the clock face. Ginny had no clue what happened when someone's trace ran out, like did the initials change to someone else's or what? Either way, she totally understood why this room was left completely unattended, it would take a person years to find someone's name with only initials to go on.

Ginny was definitely going to have to rethink her plan. She had an idea of what she could do but didn't know whether it would work. It could help not only her, but a lot of muggle-borns on the run as well. She doubted anybody would even know that the trace was broken if she succeeded, the daily prophet surely wouldn't print something like that. Not unless they wanted to end up dead. No, Voldemort wouldn't want that getting out. But underage witches and wizards who were in hiding would be able to actually use magic without getting tracked down for it.

Ginny decided to give it a try and hurriedly opened both her bag of her brothers' merchandise and her backpack, pulling several bottles of potions out of the latter. She confirmed that they were the right potions from the labels and then pulled out 6 long tubes from the bag that read 'Whizz-bangs'. Ginny nearly laughed at the memory of the Whizz-bang fireworks chasing Umbridge around Hogwarts. Nearly.

She quickly set the fireworks around the room and then set Acid potions next to five of them. Ginny had felt bad stealing these from Mad-Eye's suitcase, but she was pretty sure that if he was still alive, he'd be the only one who supported her decision. The Acid potions had a description on them that told Ginny that they were extremely potent and could burn through almost any object, it also said they reacted terribly with fire and not to ever mix the two, but right now she was kind of hoping for the bad reaction, to make sure that every single clock was broken.

The last firework was left unpaired with a potion and was closest to the door, but far enough away that Ginny would probably be unharmed by the blast. She also, in her hand held a different potion which was an explosive one, this would hopefully set off the chain reaction that she was counting on. Thank God that she had good aim as a quidditch chaser.

When she deemed everything to be in as good a place as it could be, she took aim at the first firework and threw the bottle and… nothing at first. The potion exploded but the firework didn't start. It was only when Ginny started getting concerned and walked halfway over to it that all at once the room was lit up with colour. Being quite close, Ginny could feel the heat of it on her skin and immediately backed up. The explosions were so loud that she had to put her hands over her ears which did little to help. Still, she waited, to see what would happen when the other fireworks were ignited and the acid potions came into play.

Let's just say, a lot more that she expected. Once the first one reacted the potion began to multiply and then was propelled out in all directions, barely missing Ginny, once the acid found a surface, it caught fire and then a dozen other explosions went off. By the time all the vials of liquid had done this, it was a complete miracle that the only injuries Ginny had were on here arms and legs, with just one minor scratch on her face from one of the firework creatures getting too close.

She decided that now was probably the time to go, she had done all she could do, the clocks were looking quite damaged and the fire was only just taking hold. It was when she bent down the pic up her back pack that Ginny was thrown sideways and into the door by a massive explosion. Searing pain went up her arm facing the heat and she looked down to see her hoodie ripped with her skin already blistering. Studying the room Ginny saw that on the very furthest was away from her a clock was split in two, and as she looked up another one close to it exploded as well. This was obviously the cause of the force that flung her like a rag doll, she decided as another wave of heat and kinetic energy prevented her from standing up. The clocks themselves seemed to be erupting with magic as they died.

Good thing: she knew the plan was working.

Bad things: 1) she had to get out of there before the rest exploded, and the force each time only seemed to increase. AND 2) there was no way that these blasts had gone unheard, they had shaken the whole room.

People were definitely on their way and Ginny couldn't be here when they arrived. She grabbed her bag and reach for the cloak only to see that it had been covered in acid and was now literally a rag. Fear gripped her heart as she realised she would have to leave without a wand or way of concealing her presence. A third and even more powerful explosion from a clock broke her from her thoughts as she stumbled to her feet, breathing heavily and ripped open the door. She closed it behind her, hoping that it was magically charmed to prevent the spread of the fire, but knowing that if people didn't get down here soon this fire could take out the whole building. How was she supposed to know that the trace was so temperamental?

Running as fast as she could with her lack of oxygen and various injuries, she saw a figure up ahead coming towards her. As they drew closer Ginny saw that it was a fairly young boy, maybe a year older than her and he was running straight towards her. She thought that it was all over and she would be in Azkaban, if not dead within the hour until he said.

"Oh my god are you okay?" with genuine concern on his face. "I heard blasts?!"

He must think that she was like him, some lap dog for the death eaters. She was wearing all black after all. "There's a fire…. I-I couldn't put it out and then things started exploding…" Ginny replied, thinking on her feet. As if on cue, the door she had come out of blew off its hinges and smoke began billowing out of the room.

The boys eyes widened in shock and he began backing away, "Right come on we have to get out of here." They both started making their way back. They had come through 2 doors when they reached what looked like an empty classroom. Voices could be heard shouting nearby. "Oh good, it looks like someone's he—"

The boy didn't get to finish his sentence as Ginny hurriedly picked up a paper weight and smacked him over the head. She then checked his pockets and found herself a wand. Dragging the boy's unconscious body over to a dark corner, she made short work of erasing everything about her from his memory. She left him with all the other details though, including the fact that someone else was with him and that they knocked him out. Ginny didn't want this naïve kid getting tortured because of her but if it happened, they would not be able to tell anyone who she was or what she looked like.

Casting a very quick disillusionment charm on herself Ginny took off through several more doors happy in the knowledge that she had actually helped people tonight.

Now that Ginny had a wand, and she could use it without fear, she made very short work of getting back to elevators. It's amazing what you can do when you don't feel completely vulnerable. As she reach the elevators, though roughly 20 people all piled out of one. Death eaters, teenagers, ministry officials alike, all with grim faces hurried off towards the source of the vibrations rumbling through the building. If any of them had been paying attention they would have been able to see the outline of Ginny Weasley pressed against the wall as they ran past.

Quickly slipping into the elevator as the last person exited, she continued the rest of her journey with incident. Nobody paid an 'empty' lift any notice when there was an emergency downstairs. It was only when Ginny was back in the atrium that she had another close encounter, a very unexpected one. She was heading to walk into one of the fireplaces, when out of the exact one she was about to use, came the newly appointed Minister of Magic himself. Ginny literally swerved out of the way as Pius Thicknesse walked out surrounded by other ministry officials, all looking tired and had grim faces.

"No," Thicknesse said to a man who seemed to be writing down notes, "You will not report the fire in the trace room, we cannot have that broadcast. Put the news about that Weasley girl's death down instead, a sob story for the nation. Yes I think that will do." The man writing nodded and continued to scrawl down notes. After this was said, the conversation lost all interest to Ginny because something else caught her attention. Her brother, her stupid, dick head brother Percy, was crying at the back of the pack. Not in a way that people would notice, but silently, the tears running down his cheeks as he walked after the rest. He and the rest of them had muddy shoes and it suddenly hit Ginny why. The minister had just mentioned her death, they must have just come from inspecting the body. And now Percy was crying… She ached to be able to hug him, but held herself back. This was necessary, he may feel sad now, but he would definitely tell the ministry if she ever told him that it was a trick.

Ginevra Weasley was now officially a dead girl walking, and only people who were on the light side for certain could know about her lie. It was only her, Dean and Charlie right now, until Charlie told her parents.

A massive explosion from below rallied both the group of officials and Ginny and while the group all took off in one direction, Ginny ran straight into the flames knowing that from now on, nothing was certain….

 **Please, please, please review. The story from now on will be faster paced, I just needed to set down the foundations of this AU so that it doesn't differ much from the end result of Deathly Hallows. Should update soon.**


	3. Chapter 3

**New chapter here guys, please review. Thanks and enjoy.**

Three weeks. Three fucking weeks Ginny had been cooped up in B&B's around South London. Using what little money she had to ride buses and then using the confundus charm to get free rooms at low key hotels in whatever random place she chose. It was a nightmare.

Ginny had never actually learned to aparate, only being in fifth year. But she understood the primase, visualise where you want to go to and then turn. It was the execution that she was lacking. She had been practicing for two weeks now (ever since she got sick of buses) and so far she had only managed to aparate once without splinching herself and she hadn't even ended up in the right place. Ginny had been intending to aparate from her room, into the hallway, but had actually just ended up in the exact same spot about a foot off the ground. It had shocked her so much that she had not thought about landing correctly and ended up on her arse.

But she was determined to do this and what better way than real life practice? Also she had no choice since she'd run out of money. Luckily she had magic to make or confund everything else, but travel was something she needed to learn sooner rather than later. So Ginny could now be found in the alleyway next to her last hotel focusing so hard that her forehead was creased, as she visualised her proffered destination. It took her three goes but finally, finally she popped into existence 100 metres along the alley. Checking herself over for injuries she let out a noise of triumph and then concentrated for a second and spun only to find herself back in her original place.

"Yes!" Ginny cried out. These three weeks finally felt worth something. She hadn't wanted to take such a long break but she thought it was for the best until the whole 'death' thing blew over. She didn't want to go through all that, just to be found in a day. Ginny hadn't heard anything since the morning after the fire when she'd picked up a paper only to see a picture of herself smiling back. The caption read ' _ **Weasley's devastated after tragic suicide'**_ and the picture had been of her dancing at Bill and Fleur's wedding. Of course they had completely left out the trace being broken, knowing that if people still believed, then they had control left. So Ginny was the only one that knew.

She had also sent Ron, Harry and Hermione a patronus message to let them know that she was in fact alive, but had absolutely no way of knowing whether the message had reached them. She felt ever so lonely already, and it hadn't even been a month. Ginny knew though, she knew she had to be strong now, she had come so far.

With this in mind Ginny concentrated… turned… and opened her eyes to see- a park? For a minute she panicked, but then she turned around to see she had only just over shot her mark by a few hundred feet. She had only seen this place in a travel brochure but it was around the outskirts of London. She had to stay on the move, but so far only stayed around the capital city, trying to find some way to help people. Ginny had seriously over-estimated the amount of people willing to fight back against Voldemort.

Walking around the area she had just arrived in, Ginny disillusioned herself when she came across a supermarket and began to walk through the aisles, stocking up on long-lasting food that wouldn't spoil. She shrunk these items and put them all into her disillusioned back-pack. It was when she was in the toiletry aisle that she had the idea. Ginny had only gone down there to get some new shampoo, but her eyes were captured by a box of vibrant red hair dye. She packed it into her bag and hurriedly left the store.

Sat on her bed for the night, with a book of advanced spells open, Ginny tried not to look at the box. She had taken the book from the restricted section at school, had started before school ended and was already well into it, learning some fairly brutal, but necessary magic. She really had to concentrate on memorising these spells but her gaze kept finding its way back to the box of dye. Screw it, she thought, and threw her wand upon the bed. Getting up, she snatched the box off the bed side table and walked into the bathroom.

Overall she thought this would be a good idea. She needed to change her hair colour because lets face it, she was the first girl in generations and the Weasley hair colour was very recognisable among wizards. It wouldn't be too hard for people to connect the dots, fake death or not. It would also save her from having to apply a glamour charm all the time.

Why vivid red? Ginny was proud of her ginger or 'red' hair, and now she would literally have red hair. Also she wanted something distinguishable, a symbol since she could definitely not show her face. This would her lightning bolt scar, scarlet hair.

* * *

Three days later was when Ginny finally came out of hiding, kinda. She was sort of thrown out of it. She had ventured more north and was in a rural town near the sea side. Ginny was the only current guest in this B&B and was rather suddenly awakened by loud crashes and bright lights coming from outside. Alert suddenly, she grabbed her wand off the dresser and hurried to the window. Peering out, she saw several fires in the houses down towards the end of the street and people running out and around them. Littered amongst the people were figures in black robes, donned with the typical death eater masks. The only reason they could be in a muggle village is to cause trouble.

Rushing now, Ginny hurriedly got change into some jeans and jumper, then dug a plain black robe out of her trunk. She then shrunk all of her possessions except this black garment and shoved them into her pocket. Putting on the robes Ginny realised that her face wasn't covered at all. Using a quick severing spell, she cut her hood completely off, and then brought the piece of cloth she was left with up to face and tied it behind her head. Now only her eyes were visible. Aware of the urgent screams drawing closer, Ginny quickly put the finishing touches to her disguise by untying her long, newly scarlet red hair and allowing it to billow down around her.

She aparated clumsily, mid-run into the middle of the street outside and took off towards the group of dark cloaks. She counted 6 figures all spread out from each other, making their way house to house. 3 houses were already on fire and the death eaters were busy having their fun with the occupants. The muggles did not know what had happened before it was too late, Ginny could already see two bodies on the floor but she did not dwell on this as she sent a stinging jinx and a disarming spell at one figure who was using the cruciatus curse on a middle aged man. Before these had even hit their mark Ginny sent a stunning spell at another figure close to the first. Then with a crack that went unnoticed in all noise, she disaparated before anyone had even noticed that two of the dark cloaks had fallen.

From her new vantage point, behind the group, hidden by a stone garden wall, Ginny sent an 'incendio' at one death eaters' robes. The fire took hold in the cool air very quickly, and all eyes were suddenly on him as the man flailed about trying to remove his robe. Once this was done, all four men looked around cautiously for some sign of attack. They obviously weren't high ranking death eaters, Ginny doubted they were even marked, they were nothing on those she had faced before summer.

She decided that were sort of grouped together now, she could maybe get a few in one go. When none of them were looking, she stood up fully from behind the wall and cried, "Bombarda Maxima!".

This sent a powerful burst of light out of her wand directly towards her opponents, who had barely enough to turn towards her before the spell hit the road near all four of them and they were all flung in different directions and showered with tiny pieces of gravel. Ginny stepped out into the street and walked slowly toward the men, two of which seemed unconscious. As she got closer the last two got up looking at her warily and then exchanged a look, then one stepped forward into the middle of the road a few metres away from Ginny, while the other one backed away and went to rouse his friends.

"What do you think you're doing little girl." The man said, his mask having fallen off in the explosion.

"This little girl just took out four of your friends." Ginny retorted, her voice muffled by her makeshift mask.

"They weren't expecting your attack." He replied simply.

"I could say the same about these muggles." She quipped in the same tone, and then whipped her wand up crying, "Stupefy!"

Her foe just managed to bring up his shield in time to avoid this and then immediately shot back a killing curse. Well Ginny may not be as willing to use to unforgivable curses, but she could sure find other ways to be deadly. With a swiping motion Ginny sent out a severing curse which cut a deep gash into his arm and then followed this with a particularly powerful reductor curse and finished with her signature bat-bogey hex. The man literally just dodged the reductor, the evidence of which being a hole in his robes and then threw up a shield at the hex. A blasting curse came Ginny's way but she merely conjured a brick wall for it to destroy and danced away from the debris, flinging her own jet of fire towards the man.

They had barely been fighting a minute when it became apparent that Ginny had the upper hand. Or at least she had a far greater list of spells at her disposal. The man eventually just took to firing unforgivables at her and she would either dodge the curse or conjure up something to take the force. She was slowly closing the distance between them and static began to fill the air as the fight got more intense. It was only when Ginny sustained her first injury that she really began to get mad. It wasn't even anything bad really, the man had just pointed his wand and the nearest object, which happened to be a rock, and flung it at her head. Suffice to say Ginny was pissed. It was like the whole situation suddenly hit her and she got angry, no she got _livid._ These guys thought they could just attack muggles and get away with it? And then throw fucking rocks at her head? No no no no no. not on her watch.

She sent a barrage of spells at him all at once. He couldn't possibly dodge them all and a gouging spell caught his arm causing him to howl it pain as he now had a missing chunk out of his shoulder which went all the way to the bone. Ginny walked towards him and then screamed "DEPULSO." Causing her opponent to fly backwards and knock into his friend who had regrouped everyone although three were still unconscious and one was swaying dangerously. As Ginny watched the man got up and grabbed onto his two unconscious comrades, the other man then grabbed his shoulders and then with a crack they were all gone.

Little did they know that Ginny had put a tracking spell on him.

 **New chapter here guys. Really hope you enjoy and please review. Thanks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So I never know what to put in my authors notes and I doubt any of you even read them anyway. You all want the story right? Well here's the next instalment….**

She'd found her way in. Finally, her mission felt achievable, like she had done something that would have a domino effect. After a major memory clean-up job in the village, Ginny had spent the next few days after placing the tracking charm, watching her stalkee's movements either on a map or aparating a mile away incase of trouble. It appeared to her that since the incident in the village, the man had been demoted to a snatcher rather than a death eater. Ginny had heard of these snatchers, they were travelling about responding to anyone who triggered the Dark Lord's taboo and rounding up muggle borns and blood traitors that were on the run. More and more people were going into hiding as the new school year approached.

She didn't know how she felt about not going back to school. Obviously she couldn't, but it was her home away from home, and now she couldn't be with her family or her friends and it was hurting her. Ginny had apparated to the street that Grimmauld place was on under a disillusionment charm, but had immediately noticed death eaters positioned permanently outside. She seriously doubted anyone would go there.

To take her mind off her loneliness Ginny practiced magic and tailed the newly appointed snatcher. There seemed to be a whole camp of them in a forest and they were varying degrees of sinister. She even thought that she had seen Frenrir Greyback once from a distance and had immediately disaparated. Never the less Ginny had placed several more tracking charms on members of the various little teams and had charmed her map to heat up when they moved somewhere new.

The next time her map heated Ginny had rolled her eyes because for a week now nothing had happened, the snatchers had just been getting food or something. She was seriously beginning to question whether this was the best approach but when she checked the map, not one, but two of the men had moved to the opposite end of the country. They were somewhere up near the Lake District in the middle of night. Ginny knew instinctively that this was something different than the other time and quickly got changed.

She had also got more prepared at her 'disguise' since last time, she had bought a muggle black skin-tight jumpsuit which would have been normally way too revealing for her, but that was the point. She couldn't dress like her. It was also really easy to move in and made her look older than normal as it hugged her curves. She had also procured a death eater mask from among the wreckage of the village and decided that this was the perfect thing to hide her face. What would piss off the death eaters more than their enemy wearing their mask? Also it showed them that Ginny wasn't afraid of them, or she was trying not to be.

It took her all of two minutes to get into these and then she collected her thing and apparated all the way to the Lake District. At a light jog Ginny moved into a forest following where the map said the snatchers would be. When she heard noise ahead she slowed and crept forward trying to be as silent as possible.

She came upon what looked like a camp, it had a few tents dotted around but they all looked ransacked. By the fire were a group of snatchers, Ginny could easily spot the ones she had tracking charms on. A few yards away from them were a group of 20 people or so, men, women, children, probably the owners of the tents. They were all tied together, with their hands bound. The snatchers were currently going through their hostages' belongings, chucking what they did not want on the fire.

It was when they got to a particular item, a wedding ring, that everything went pear shaped.

"Oooh, gold…" one of them said, "reckon we could get some money for melting this down."

That was when a woman, tied up, spoke, "Please… don't take my ring." She sobbed.

The man holding said item ran at the woman, violently yanking her hair back, "What did you say to me you mudblood piece of scum?" he screamed. This caused the woman to sob even more, her words barely recognisable any more.

"Ple-hehease, it's all I have left of him." Ginny's heart ached for the woman, who had obviously been through a lot. She decided then and there that these bastards weren't going to take that ring.

"Accio ring." She muttered, using the necessary wand movements. The ring came flying through the darkness towards her, barely noticeable enough for her to catch. The snatchers who had all been too occupied with the spectacle, didn't notice a thing and the man who had been holding it obviously thought that a fellow snatcher was responsible for the disappearance. Ginny carefully put the ring on her thumb, as it was way too big for her other fingers and then slowly began to move around the camp in a wide circle.

Meanwhile from below, the snatcher was getting more frustrated with his colleagues, "Tell me who took it! That was mine that gold, MINE!"

"Jesus Christ man, none of us know where your bloody ring is." Another snatcher replied.

Ginny watched this whole thing play out as she carefully began to move closer to the hostages. When she felt she was near enough Ginny sent an overly powerful 'engorgio' at the camp fire which immediately sent a flame towering 20 feet into the air. All eyes turned to look at it, flinching away and Ginny quickly ran over to the captives and began using severing charms to untie everyone.

"What are you doing you mad girl." One old man asked in a harsh whisper.

"Saving your lives," she replied in the same tone, "don't move until I give all of you the signal."

She was just finishing the last person's bonds when, done with putting out the fire, everybody turned towards her. There was a moment when all the snatchers turned to look at her, obviously confused as to why she was wearing a death eater mask, but then they all reached for their wands.

"Now!" Ginny screamed, throwing her body backwards and twisting mid-air to disaparate. The effect was immediate, when Ginny reappeared balancing on a branch of one of the nearest trees, all of the hostages were running in different directions and their captors looked torn between finding the person who set them free, or rounding them up again.

Their indecision was part of their downfall. Some of the adults, mainly men, who had been tied, ran at the snatchers and physically knocked them to the ground. Being of higher numbers, the snatchers still standing began turning their wands on the opponents. Ginny knew she had to act fast and she couldn't possibly take out multiple people at once, so instead she did the first thing that came to mind.

"Oy! Dickheads!" she cried. "Forget about me?" and then she jumped out of the tree, sending her most powerful cushioning charm at the ground and then rolling when she hit the ground. It wasn't even that tall a tree but Ginny felt like such a badass afterwards.

By now the fist fights had ceased as the snatchers were able to throw their attackers off. Said people, five men and two women, were currently backing up towards Ginny, and Ginny noticed that both women and one of the men had managed to wrestle a wand out of its owner's grasp. Sure they were still out-matched but at least she didn't have to defend all of them on her own.

"You!" one of the snatchers, who looked faintly familiar, stepped forward pointing at Ginny and for a second her heart nearly stopped for fear that he had identified her, "it's you isn't it?! And that's my old mask!"

"Ohhh." Ginny sighed in relief, "You're one of those idiots from the village. Pleasure to see you again." She knew she was being arrogant, but she couldn't help but grin.

He looked enraged by this and turned to his companions, "This is the one who tried to kill us. And now she's here defending mudbloo-" he was cut short when Ginny's stunner hit him in the back.

She faked an overly dramatic yawn, and the said "I think I just did us all a favour, that guy was _boring_. Am I right?" the snatchers just starred at her. "Never mind." And then she shot a confringo at the centre of the pack and yelled "Get to the trees!" at her seven comrades.

She hid behind the first tree she came to and then began trying to shoot spells around the trunk. Lets just say accuracy was not on her mind. The line of snatchers began walking forwards and seemed to stick with the strategy if barraging them with spells. Ginny had to admit it was working, but they were getting way too close for comfort. Digging up some new knowledge, Ginny decided to use a spell she had just learnt, which built upon the spell incendio. Peeking out from the tree just long enough to sweep her wand horizontally across the floor of the camp, Ginny created a wall of fire. This meant that the people firing on her and her new acquaintances, could not get to them by foot, and since no one seemed to want to be the first to aparate to the other side of the fire, it was a successful barricade.

Unfortunately, although bodies could not get through fire, spells seemed to be just fine, especially dark magic. When a killing curse hit the tree next to Ginny, she watches the whole trunk turn black and every leaf began to fall as one. Then a second later a violent severing curse cut through half of Ginny's tree and it began to lean precariously. She fired a volley of jinxes, even throwing in her bat-bogey hex for good measure, but there was still around twelve snatchers all firing very deadly spells at the eight of them and only half had wands.

When a bird's nest fell out of the tree she was behind, which was getting closer and closer to falling over by the minute, Ginny was reminded of a story Harry had once told her about Hermione. She had researched the spell afterwards but had never tried it. God she hoped this worked.

Knowing that she only had one shot at this, Ginny stepped out from behind the tree, dodged an incoming curse which burned as it flew by and took aim at the line of snatchers. Then Ginny transfigured a nearby tent into a flock of birds and screamed, "Oppugno!".

The effect was instantaneous, the birds flew over the still burning wall of fire and began clawing and pecking at the dark wizards. Ginny must have however put much more gusto into the spell than necessary because she heard a rumbling through the trees and suddenly it seemed as though every bird in the forest had all swarmed in one place. It was impossible to see anything but Ginny and her allies just watched in shock as the birds suddenly without warning took off again, away this time. Where before there had been snatchers, there were now just pieces of ripped cloth with blood on them. The people these scraps of garments belonged to must have disaparated in the confusion of the onslaught. It was silent for a moment and then Ginny absentmindedly flicked her wand at the line of fire and it died out, leaving everybody to snap out of their thoughts.

"Are they gone?" A middle aged man to her left asked nobody in particular.

"I think so." Ginny spoke grimly. "But you guys have to get going. They might be back."

"What about you?" a younger man, one of the ones with a wand asked.

"I'll be fine." She reassured him. "You should probably all split up too. I know there's strength in numbers, but it would be a lot harder to find you if you all scattered about."

Suddenly Ginny was being hugged. She guessed by the wall of brown hair in her face that it was one of the girls. "Thank you." A voice said in her ear, "You saved my son's life." The woman pulled back and smiled tearily at her and then she began to walk briskly away probably in search of said son.

Everyone dispersed into the dark until suddenly it was just Ginny and the other woman in the ruins of the camp. She hadn't noticed before but the other woman was the one who had been so upset over the ring, and judging by the way she was searching the ground with her stolen wand, this woman wasn't leaving until she got it.

"Looking for something?" Ginny asked, and the woman's head whipped up in fear, mellowing when she realised who was speaking.

"Sorry," the woman said, "The mask is just a bit frightening…" then the woman noticed what Ginny was holding up and she rushed over, sobbing before she had even reached her.

Ginny handed her the ring, smiling under her mask. Her heart really did go out to this woman. She hoped that maybe if they won the war, this woman could have a happy ending. As Ginny turned to leave, the woman grabbed her arm stopping her.

"Do we not even get to know who you are?" the woman asked.

Ginny shook her head "Sorry but no. I can't risk my family's lives like that." The woman nodded, understanding.

"I may not be able to see your face but you don't sound old enough to be doing stuff like this." She replied

"Oh I'm not, but right now, I'm the only one willing." Ginny replied darkly. Yes she was angry that she was the only one helping, but she figured she deserved to be.

"That sounds awfully lonely." The woman stated as she began to walk away.

"It is." Ginny said more to herself that anyone, and then she disaparated.

 **Okay so this chapter is another one developing the story. It's a bit similar to the last one but it's an important step for Ginny's character. She's evolving, becoming more independent, but it's not easy for her, she's going to face a lot of struggle up ahead. So far she's gotten lucky, this time she had some help. Ginny is in no way invincible, and shes a human, a 16 yr old human, with feelings. So yeah expect more turmoil to come.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this update has taken so long but I've had so much hmwk and the first draft got deleted. But here it is finally, hope you enjoy it!**

The end of October could find Ginny huddled by the fire, huddled over a wireless radio with her wand out. She'd taken to camping out in forests recently, having learnt some basic protection charms. She'd also found (stolen) herself a tent. Not a magical one, though she hardly needed extra room with just her…

The wireless radio however was a very new development. You see things had gone rather quiet on the whole 'death eater' front since her last endeavour. She still had a few tracking charms in place but security had been increased around their camp. So since she wasn't gaining information that way anymore, she had taken to stealing copies of Wizarding magazines whilst in disguise. This particular day it had been a copy of the Quibbler, and after combing through all the overly opinionated articles, she happened across an advert at the very back. It was for some new radio show which promised 'only the cold hard truth'. There were no other details than this except for instructions on how to tune in (a password) and what time it would start, which was roughly anytime now.

Following the advice on how to enter the password, Ginny carefully tapped in Gryffindor. She had to repeat a few times before it was done right but she eventually heard a crackle and then voices.

" _-nd welcome to the first ever broadcast of POTTERWATCH, the only source of information not tampered with by Death Eater influence."_ A voice crackled through the speakers. As the connection grew stronger Ginny realised that this voice was rather familiar. _"In today's programme we will be covering many of the issues that have not been discussed due to recent events."_ With a startled gasp, Ginny finally placed the voice as that of Lee Jordan's. " _Now due to obvious reasons, myself and anyone else featured on this broadcast will be under code names. I will be referred to as River."_

" _And I-" a new voice cut in, "will be known as Rodent."_ before Ginny had consciously placed the voice as that of her brother, she felt tears prick at her eyes. Immediately she grabbed the radio closer, the tears streaming. It was definitely one of the twins speaking. _"Now River, don't you think it's time to cover all the headlines which_ should _have been published recently?"_ the twin continued, and Ginny decided that this was Fred, she just knew.

" _Yes Rodent I do. Now we of course have to start with information about the man himself, Harry Potter. Unfortunately there have been no sightings whatsoever since last month when several of the muggle-borns positively identified him among those who freed them from the ministry. But before people make judgements, just remember that if he had been captured, then the death eaters would want us to know about it. So if Mr Potter is listening, you have our full support."_ After the shock of hearing Fred's voice it was now easier to place the second one as Lee Jordan. The news about no recent sightings of Harry was both equal amounts of worrying and reassuring. It raised many questions. How were they? Was Ron getting enough food? Had they got Ginny's message?

She shook her head clear of these thoughts and focused on Fred instead. He still sounded as sarcastic as ever, and obviously still had that same lack of regard for the law as before. " _In other news, we have heard some very worrying reports that the ministry, AKA the king Death eater, has sent swarms of Dementors across Britain. They do not seem to have a clear goal, as we have seen numerous accounts of them entering muggle villages and feeding. We must beg of everyone to exercise caution and please keep an eye out for these creatures. The spell needed to protect yourself is '_ Expecto Patronum', _so please practice this. And remember, muggles are defenceless against Dementors, so take that into consideration if you see any nearby. Thank you."_

" _Very wise words River. This war is not about every man for themselves. Speaking of people who have been helping others in these dark times, we have to address these rumours spreading."_ Fred continued.

" _Oh yes, very interesting rumours indeed."_ Lee answered.

" _We here at POTTERWATCH have been hearing some gossip lately about a certain girl. There have been sightings of a girl, who has been attacking Death Eaters. She has reportedly saved over a dozen people who were captured by snatchers and we believe her to be the reason behind the abrupt end to an attack on a muggle village in early September although there is no physical evidence."_ Fred sounded very odd whilst saying this. Almost like he was proud? Surely he couldn't think this was her just from a few reports? Ginny wondered if he had really made such a leap on such little evidence.

" _We do however, have a description of the girl, don't we Rodent?"_ Lee asked.

" _Not a very detailed one, but this girl has been said to have scarlet red hair, described as 'the colour of blood', and most disturbingly she wears a death eater mask."_ Her brother's tone told Ginny that he did indeed find this image disturbing, a fact that she was surprised to find bothered her. _"we don't have much more on this rumour, but whoever it is they are fast becoming something of a myth. Some people have referred to her as the reaper, or even the Death Hunter, well I don't know about you River, but I definitely prefer the name that has been fast becoming this figure's title: Red Rogue."_

" _Definitely Rodent, lovely bit of alliteration there. Well, that is all we have time for listeners, we will definitely be following these rumours next time. We don't know when we will be back but one thing's for sure, the password will be_ basilisk _so keep on trying. Be safe."_ And with that the radio began to crackle with static and Ginny held onto it even tighter. It took her a good few minutes to pull herself back together and stop crying.

When she finally did she dried her eyes, set the radio down and decided to turn in for the night. For the first time in weeks, hell since she left the burrow, Ginny felt almost at peace. Hearing her brother's voice had made her feel close to her family and it was exactly what she needed, it was like a top-up of confidence. They may not support her decision right now, but Ginny knew that her parents would be doing exactly the same thing as her if they could find a way. This in mind Ginny drifted off to sleep, dreaming about her mother's cooking and the twin's antics, and the way her father would babble on about a new muggle device he'd seen at work. She dreamed of home.

 **I feel like people will either love or hate this chapter. Yes it's very slow paced, but I feel it really strongly establishes the plot line and where it fits in with the books. Also I think the ending is nice and sweet if I do say so myself. I like not leaving it on a cliffhanger. Please please review guys, I love reading your comments.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, so sorry about the wait again. It's been a very hectic term but I've got about two months off now so should have speedy updates. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter. Review!**

The next few weeks were quite difficult on Ginny. She was now very conscious of the fact that some people knew about her, whether they believed or not. This meant that they would be very aware of any new developments, so she would have to be careful. It was approaching late November and the winter was out in full force.

It was a Tuesday when Ginny got the message. She'd been going about her morning routine, heating up a tin of beans over the fire, when from the corner of her eye Ginny saw a bright white orb hurtling towards her. Out of instinct Ginny had immediately hurled herself out of the way and grabbed for her wand, only to turn and find the orb transformed into a patronus. Breathing out a sigh of relief, Ginny approached it as it began to speak in the voice of her brother Bill.

"Ginny," Bill's voice sounded weary, not physically tired, just fed up, "I don't know if this will reach you wherever you are, but…. It's Ron." A spike of fear runs up her spine as he says this, "He's fine. He's safe. It's just, could you come to Shell Cottage? If you get this just come okay? Be safe. We all love and miss you." Ginny was already packing by the time Bill finished. She waved her wand at her tent, saying 'pack'. It was when she had nothing else to do that she noticed the patronus was still there, staying eerily still and watching her.

Having only recently learnt about this branch of communication, Ginny knew what was happening straight away. She knelt down slowly and said, "I'll be there." And before she could say anything else the squirrel was an orb of light hurtling back the way it came.

The crack sounded on the hilltop and was immediately lost in the wind. A hunched figure stood on the peak, hands on knees trying to catch their breath.

"Jesus Christ." Ginny cursed, her face pale. She had done the trip to her aunt's old cottage in two goes, but, unused to apparating very far yet, it had drained her. When Ginny feels ready enough to continue, she begins her descent down the hill which is connected to the same beach as the cottage. She feels rather impressed with herself, as she was able to make it only a mile walk away. She had aimed for the front door but it was no bother.

The sand under her feet is wet, the tide having just gone out. Ginny feels instantly safe here, taking a moment to marvel at the beauty, she can almost hear Ron complaining about how cold he is, or Percy trying to stop the twins from… well, being the twins.

"Ginny?! Ginny is that you?" the sound of her brother's shouts pierce the calm of the beach. Ginny whips around to see Bill sprinting down the sand strip towards her. He barrels into her, barely slowing down as he hugs the life out of her small frame. She is just relaxing into the hug when it ends abruptly, Bill's wand suddenly pointed at her face.

"What is the ridiculous name that you gave to Ron's owl?" Bill asks, staring alternately into each of her eyes.

"Pigwidgeon." Ginny says quickly, and when she sees him relax adds, "And it's not _ridiculous,_ it's cute."

"It really is my annoying little sister." Bill smiles hugging her again. "What have you done to your hair? You know what, don't tell me, I wouldn't be Molly Weasley's son if I didn't tell you how stupid you have been."

His sister nods, "I know, I know. But I had to, you know?"

Its Bill's turn to nod now, "I do know. You're a Weasley, Gryffindor through and through." He smiles at her, eyes crinkling and slowly they make their way towards Shell Cottage.

"Speaking of Weasleys, you didn't tell anyone I was coming did you?" Ginny asks nervously.

"And have Mum come barging in to find Ron aswell? I value my life." He fake shudders, feigning fear.

"So why's he here?" she questions.

"He won't really say anything. Just that he left." Bill answers. "But he's been sulking since he got here. I thought maybe you could help but I wasn't sure if my message would reach you…"For the rest of the way they walk in comfortable silence. It is only when they reach the front gate that Ginny says, mostly to herself.

"A squirrel… huh?" she enquires.

"Yeah? What about it?" Her brother asks defensively, opening the gate and stepping in after her.

"Nothing really, just never knew." Ginny shrugs it off. "Mine's a horse." With that they both enter the small cottage's front door. Clattering of pots and pans can be heard from the kitchen and someone is humming along to the radio.

"SHE'S HERE." Bill calls to nobody in particular while helping his sister set her heavy backpack down. Within seconds Ginny has an overly excited French woman flying at her.

"GEENY!" Fleur cries, her smile lighting up her face.

"Heyyy." Said girl replies through a mouth of blonde hair. "It's good to see you, how are you?" and surprisingly Ginny meant it. She may not have warmed to Bill's wife at first, but Fleur had definitely grown on her. The girl was just so kind hearted that eventually Ginny was able look past the aspects of her personality she found irritating. As Fleur pulls back to answer the question a sullen voice sounds from the top of the stairs.

"Who's here?! Bill I swear if you owled Mum I'll-" Ron's voice cuts off as he comes into view and catches sight of Ginny. "Oh."

"Hey." Ginny waves lamely. Ron looks at Bill for an explanation, his eyes narrowed.

"Why's she here?" He asks, his tone full of accusations.

"Wow." Ginny says sarcastically. "You've not seen me in months, and that's what I get. I'm guessing you got my patronus message then since you don't seem to have lost any sleep over my well-being."

"Yeah we got the message, could have done with it about five minutes earlier though, before we saw the obituary. Hermione was in bits, and God you should have seen-" he cuts off abruptly for some reason. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay too." There's complete silence in the hallway after this, a kind of awkward energy settling over them.

"Well, I will go set ze table for dinner. Come in 'ere Bill." Fleur's about as subtle as a bull in a china shop but she at least breaks the tension. She and her husband both shuffle off into another room, leaving Ron who was still stood on the stairs, with Ginny at the bottom

Ginny's youngest brother barely spares her a "Come on." before turning on his heel and walking back the way he came. She follows in a hurry, to one of the spare bedrooms, closing the door behind her. Ron is sat on the bed, hunched with his hands covering his face.

Ginny leans against the door, waiting for him to start. He looks exhausted, which is ironic since he's probably just been moping in this bedroom since he got here.

"I messed up." He states. At first Ginny is not sure what he has said, with his voice being muffled by his hands, which is why it takes her a second to reply.

"You messed up? How?" she asks. She wasn't exactly surprised that something Ron had done was the reason he wasn't with his friends.

"I left them." He admits, "I got jealous and I abandoned them and now I have no idea where they are." Taking his head out of his hands, he looks at Ginny nervously, as though scared of her reaction.

Schooling her face into a neutral mask, Ginny looks at her brother and says, "You are a prat." To which he nods in agreement. "Everyone knows you guys disappeared for a reason, and now you've gone and left Harry and Hermione one man down."

"I know." Ron groans. "It's just, there was this thing and it messed with our emotions and I- I just couldn't deal with it. It made me think stuff, about the two of them…"

"What thing?" Ginny asks. Her brother merely looks at her, obviously not planning to say more. "Okay then, well if there's one thing I know for sure, it's that nothing is… ' _going on'_ with Harry and Hermione." At this Ron rolls his eyes.

"Ginny, they're all alone on the run together. If there wasn't something going on before, there probably is now, and just because you and Harry had a little fling doesn't mean he's got some obligation to you still." He says harshly.

"I wasn't saying that you arsehole." Ginny angrily retorts, because his words hurt slightly, "Harry Potter is of age, he can do whatever he likes. What I'm talking about is the fact I'm friends with _Hermione_ and she told me profusely while I was dating Dean that I was not allowed to set her up with Harry because she doesn't see him like that. So why don't you get your head out of your arse and go find them." With that Ginny storms out of the room, leaving a speechless Ron behind.

However she only makes it halfway down the stairs before the sound of voices makes her pause. Fleur and Bill are speaking in hushed voices from the kitchen, obviously arguing about something.

"It is your choice Bill. All I am saying is that you should think very 'ard about 'ow your mother must be feeling right now." Fleur says. Ginny gets a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realises what the topic is.

"I know, you're right. Either way though, one of them is going to be mad at me." Bill replies.

"But if what Fred says is correct and Geeny is fighting snatchers….. Bill she could die." Fleur's voice cracks with emotion at the last part and Ginny feels ashamed for ever doubting the goodness of her personality.

"And she's died her hair blood red… like this girl is meant to have." Bill ponders, voice unsure. "I'll go tell Mum after dinner, give the two of them a few more hours of peace."

Ginny doesn't stay to listen to the rest of the conversation, she's heard all she needs to. Instead she turns on her heel and hurries straight back to Ron's room. As she bursts through the door Ron immediately starts talking.

"Listen I'm sorry about bef-" he starts.

"SHHHH." His sister hisses, rapidly casting 'muffliato' at the door. "We've got to go, now."

"Why?" Ron asks, panicked. "Are we in danger? Are Bill and Fleur okay?" He rushes towards the door but Ginny steps in front of him.

"Worse." She says staring him dead in the eyes, "Bill is telling Mum after dinner."

"Shit." Is the only reply she gets as her brother rapidly races to the wardrobe, grabs a backpack, and starts filling it. Meanwhile Ginny goes to retrieve her own backpack, increasing the undetectable extension charm already on it while she helps Ron pack. "So how are we getting out of here?" he asks as he folds a shirt.

"Erm we could apparate?" Ginny suggests.

Her brother shakes his head. "They have an anti-apparition barrier set up around the cottage."

"Then brooms?" she offers, pulling hers out of her backpack. Ron just looks at her like she's crazy.

"You packed a broom?" Is his answer.

Ginny shrugs replying, "Well I had to get to get to London to sneak into the ministry somehow."

He looks startled for a second and then smiles, "Hey! We snuck in too."

"Ron. Not the time." His sister reminds him, "So if not brooms then we're gonna have to run for it…"

Suddenly a knock sounds at the bedroom door, "Guys, Fleur says dinner will be in fifteen minutes." Bills voice calls. His two siblings stand on the other side of the door frozen, not sure what to do. If Bill decided to open the door right then, not even magic would be able to hide the fact that they had been packing. The room was a pigsty. Eventually however they do hear his footsteps retreating back down the stairs and resume stuffing random articles of clothing into Ron's backpack.

"The quickest way out is the front path." Ron says grabbing a pair of boxers, giving them a sniff and then, after shrugging, packs them.

Eyeing her brother with disgust, Ginny nods, "But we can't just walk out of the front door, we'd have to walk right past the front room and be completely visible from the kitchen." As the two ponder this dilemma, they both heave their bags onto their shoulders.

"Well…" Ron starts after a minute of silence. "Nahh." He withdraws shaking his head.

"No, go on, what is it?" His sister prompts.

"Well, Bill and Fleur's room is basically built directly above the front door, and I'm pretty good with a levitation charm since…" He is cut off by Ginny.

"Yes Ron we all remember you helped defeat a troll." She says, a bit too harshly. Then again, now really wasn't the time for bragging about an eleven year old's luck. "But… you aren't really suggesting I let you levitate me out of a window."

"Yeah. Why not?" he deadpans.

"Why not?! Because at the very least I break my bloody leg Ronald." Ginny retorts.

"Well I don't see you suggesting any better ideas." Ron huffs back making Ginny pause. She had to concede that going out the front door was way too risky, and she didn't really want to stupefy her own family today.

"Fine." She agrees. "But if this goes tits up I'll kick your arse." And with that they both head out onto the empty landing. The slight clang of pots is audible from the kitchen but there is hardly any other noise as the siblings make their way towards Bill and Fleur's bedroom. Once inside they open the fairly large windows as far as they'll go.

"So how are we doing this?" Ron asks.

"It's your plan, I'm not going first." Ginny replies lightly shoving him towards the window.

Her brother looks like he's going to argue but quickly stops himself at the look on her face and goes to sit on the ledge. "Right," he says nervously, "Any chance you've had a change of hear-WOAH SHIT!" Ginny, who had become bored of her brother's nonsense, had decided to just act before he realised and cast the levitation charm, causing the current outburst.

"Will you be quiet?!" she hisses at his floating form, and begins to lower him to the ground. He's only a few feet off the ground when Ginny hears footsteps on the stairs and in a panic drops him. The sight of Ron sprawled on the ground below almost makes her burst out laughing before she clamps a hand over her mouth.

She can hear Bill's voice from the top of the stairs now, "Guys? Are you killing each other in there?" Ginny hears him open the door and look around the now vacant room, then a moment of tangible silence before he curses and races back towards the landing. He calls his siblings name's in distress, clearly heading in the right direction.

"Oh bloody hell." Ginny says to herself, making a decision. Hoisting her rucksack more firmly onto her shoulders she takes off at a sprint and jumps headfirst through the large open windows. There's a moment where her mind goes completely blank in fear as she looks at the ground below before she can practically hear a gear click in her head and she is screaming the incantation for a cushioning charm, trying to make it as powerful as she can.

" _Molliare_!"

 **So bro and sis reunion here, hope you enjoy it while it lasts… got the incantation at the end from the new play/book 'The Cursed Child' literally read it in about 3 hours. Loved it but won't say any more than that for those who haven't read it yet.**

 **Anyway please review, I love your comments. Thank you.**


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